Intense, emotional, inspiring. These are the only words to describe
the novel that took the author over five years to write due to the
emotionally draining story that’s drawn tears from everyone who’s
read it.!
When 45-year-old Ellen Michaels loses her husband to a tragic military
accident, she is left in a world of gray. For 25 years her life has been
dictated by the ubiquitous “They”—the military establishment that has
included her like chattel with John’s worldly goods—his dependents,
furniture, and effects. They—who have stolen her hopes, her dreams
and her innocence, and now in mere months will take away the roof
over her head. Ellen is left with nothing to hold on to but memories and
guilt, and an awful secret that has held her in its grip since she was 19.
John’s untimely death takes away her anchor, and now, without the
military, there is no one to tell her where to go, what to do—no one to
dictate who she is. Dependent deals with issues ever-present in today’s
service families—early marriage, frequent long absences, the culture of
rank, and post-traumatic stress, as well as harassment and abuse of
power by higher-ranking officials. It presents a raw and realistic view of
life for the lives of the invisible support behind the uniform.!

About the Author

BRENDA COREY DUNNE, trained as a physiotherapist, worked several
years as a Physiotherapy Officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force before
meeting the love of her life, RCAF Colonel Tom Dunne, and becoming a
military dependent herself. Brenda currently resides on a small hobby
farm in Eastern Ontario, Canada, with her husband and three children.!